For years, the bicycle industry was a somewhat neglected sector. Bikes were for kids and commuters – nobody else.
Innovations in technology, however, have transformed bicycles into compelling products with more use cases than most people imagined, even ten years ago.
We’ve seen the development of new materials, advances in bicycle apps, and even electric motorized versions that transform the traditional safety bike into a two-wheeled mobility scooter.
For savvy entrepreneurs, there are dozens of opportunities in the sector to make money. Here are just some of the ways that you could cash in on these new trends.
Fitting Electric Motors To Pedal-Powered Steeds
Most bicycles are a welded 6061 aluminum plate frame connected to a fork, seat post, and a pair of wheels. But thanks to improvements in lithium-ion batteries and electric motor manufacturing technology, there’s now a big market for upgrading from pedal power.
The problem for consumers right now is that the vast majority of them don’t know how to fit electric conversion kits to their bicycles. They know that they’re out there, but they don’t want to go to the hassle of learning precisely how they work.
Here’s where savvy entrepreneurs can help. They can offer people bespoke electric bike conversion services that do the work for them. You take in their original pushbike, add the new kit, and then charge them for parts and labor, giving them a much more exciting bicycle in the process.
Custom Bicycle Painting
People are quite conservative about how they paint their cars. They don’t want to stand out too much on the road. Fortunately, they’re not so reserved when it comes to their bicycles. Many want to take risks.
Here again, the majority of cyclists need help. They’re not professional painters by any stretch of the imagination, so they need people with painting skills to create beautiful products for them.
Custom bicycle painting is popular right now. Large numbers of people out there want unique paint jobs for their bikes, but there aren’t enough people offering this type of service to go around. Waiting lists are long – often six months or more – and prices are high. You can easily spend weeks’ wages on a new paint job.
By offering this service, you can tap into a latent market and begin generating revenue immediately.
Custom Bike Builders
Big bicycle manufacturers churn out cycles by the thousands, all with identical components. For many enthusiasts, this is a problem. They don’t want the same bike as everyone else that they know. They want to build one from scratch, all with custom components.
Currently, there’s a paucity of custom bike builders out there. If you want to create a bike with your dream set of parts, you either have to hand it over to a generic bike shop or do it yourself. That’s not ideal.
There’s an opportunity here, therefore, for companies offering custom bike building services. You could take bespoke orders from customers, assemble the parts, and then deliver their new bikes to their address.
So, there you have it: three ways you could easily make money in the bicycle industry over the coming years.
Fabulous Opportunities Await Entrepreneurs In The Bicycle Industry
